Exchange for Change Newsletter

Summer, 2017

Contents

Letter from the Founder

When we started teaching writing at Dade Correctional Institution (DCI) nearly three years ago, we had no idea how quickly our classes would gain traction, prompting us to expand to other courses and then other institutions. Our success, which includes 17 classes this past semester and more than 400 diplomas awarded for completing courses that range from the creative to the practical, is less about our instructors showing up each week than it is a response to the unfed appetite of talent behind bars. Writing exchanges with academic institutions and open exhibits of our students’ work have helped their genius cross over the razor wire and into public view. Several of our students have won awards and been published, and two of our students’ work will be included in an upcoming anthology.Our dedicated board, an exceptional group of facilitators, our academic and community partners, and our selfless interns are helping us to expand our mission to teach writing in prison, foster leadership, and promote dialogue across social and institutional barriers. We continue to focus on collaborations that nurture empathy and advocacy and create individual and social change.

–Kathie Klarreich

Fundraising Corner

Exchange for Change would like to thank everyone who has given in 2017. Their contributions make it possible for us to offer courses and to teach writing that transforms! A special thanks to these recent donors:

Russell Banks

The Coral Gables United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Board

Pravin Daswani

Edwidge Danticat

The Dunspaugh-Dalton Foundation

Pamela Goddard

Anke Graichen

Maureen. G. and K. Lawrence Gragg

The Grymes Fund

David Kowitz

Allison Langer

John Lester

Rebeca Ramos

Eva Ritvo

Stephanie Rosen

Adina and Luis Garcia Sanchez

Juan and Rita Zubillaga

We are also deeply grateful to O, Miami and the University of Miami for their ongoing institutional and financial support, and for their faith in what we do. Yet even with this abundance of generosity, we need your support more than ever. Our rapid expansion, unprecedented outreach, and new community initiatives are reaching more individuals each semester, on both sides of prison walls. There is no other organization doing this kind of work. It’s important and necessary. But to continue to do what we do, we need your help. Your contribution provides a unique opportunity for dialogue across social and institutional barriers. It will change lives. You can make your online donation here, through the button below, or send a check made out to Exchange for Change to:

Exchange for Change2103 Coral Way, Second FloorMiami, FL 33145

In Miami & In the News: Events & Media Coverage

The Opening of "Connecting Sentences" at the Main Library in Downtown Miami

2017 has proved to be our best and busiest year yet. In addition to classes at Dade Correctional Institution, Everglades CI, Homestead CI and Everglades ReEntry Center, we are organizing more workshops and events for our incarcerated students. We have also worked hard to increase its visibility and spread its message.

On June 19th and 20th, WLRN aired a two-part, 15-minute story by Wilson Sayre on the E4C students at Homestead CI and their University of Miami writing partners. Hear the story in their words atWLRN.org.

In March and April, View-Through, a unique collaboration with O, Miami and artist Julia Weist,significantly increased our online presence and was featured in more than a dozen media, including VICE Magazine, WLRN, and NPR’s Here & Now.

Connecting Sentences, an exhibition of student work at the Main Library in downtown Miami, will soon transition to an exhibit space at Florida Atlantic University. In addition, “Voices from the Inside,” a Tedx Talk delivered in Coconut Grove by E4C director Josh Stone in March of this year is now available on YouTube.

Our crowning achievement, however, was the graduate showcase at DCI on May 3rd. More than 70 outside community members attended, including judges, activists, donors and prominent community leaders. The event was featured in theMiami Heraldand on WLRN.

In recent months, E4C has also presented on multiple University of Miami panels; moderated Slavery & Incarceration: Bridging the Past and the Present, a panel at the Center for Social Change;live-streamed an interview with the Miami Herald Editorial Page editor; and spoken on a panel for the Miami Mass Story Lab that co-hosted “States of Incarceration”, the first national traveling multimedia exhibition aimed at examining the history of mass incarceration in the United States.

Special & Ongoing Projects

Three unusual projects deserve special mention: Don’t Shake the Spoon, Prisoners Have Mothers, Too, and the View Through project.

Don't Shake the Spoon

Don’t Shake the Spoon: A Journal of Prison Writing

is a literary journal sharing some of Exchange for Change’s students’ best written and visual work. The theme of our first issue, available this fall, is change, which has not only served as our contributors’ inspiration but celebrates their transition from writers to published authors. For an explanation of the name, be sure to check out our first issue!

Prisoners Have Mothers, Too

Prisoners Have Mothers, Too

is a zine comprised of writings by Exchange for Change in honor or memory of their mothers. The zine was produced by UM/E4C interns in collaboration with Special Collections at UM’s Richter Library, and was released and distributed at the O, Miami Zine Fair on UM’s campus. The front page of the Miami Herald's Healthy Living section featured our students’ performances of this material from our Spring 2017 graduate showcase at Dade CI.

View-Through

The View-Through project was a collaboration between over 100 of our incarcerated students, Exchange for Change, O, Miami, and artist Julia Weist, This community-based initiative’s aim was to alter the results of online search engines to downplay stereotypes and highlight the poetic prowess of incarcerated individuals. People from more than 40 countries participated in changing the algorithm. Google “Miami inmates are….” to keep the project alive.

Writer Spotlight

[1]
This is a one line poem. This Poem was conceived by a thought impregnated by Sha’condria . . . This Poem demanded itself into being . . . existed, and then . . . insisted on being unlike any other This Poem poem . . .

This Poem is not to bust shots or drip lust or lead . . . Even though Its Author is, This Poem is not compelled to be hip-hop or like it must Dred . . . Just like its Author, This Poem is Red . . . Yet This Poem listens intently & seriously considers everything this crip poem just said . . .